CRICKET
ICC T20: Lankans end Windies hopes
Sri Lanka ended up their world cup campaign by winning their last group match and their victory also confirmed the elimination of West Indies.
West Indies chose to field first after winning the toss but this didn’t help them.
Sri Lanka amassed a huge total of 189 due to some sterling batting by Asalanka and their opener P. Nissanka.
Both hit the fifties, yet Asalanka’s was the better one.
He struck 68 off 41 balls, smashing a six and eight fours.
While defending a huge target, Wanindu Hasaranga took two further wickets to finish with 16 wickets for the competition – a T20 World Cup record.
For West Indies, the greats didn’t actually show up, but two youthful players did, and in spite of the inadequacy around them, they even got West Indies to inside 20 runs of Sri Lanka’s aggregate.
The 24-year-old Shimron Hetmyer’s 81 off 54 balls was the more destructive of the two.
Nicholas Pooran hit 46 off 34 balls.
No other West Indies hitter scored in two digits.
Asalanka shines again
At the point when Sri Lanka began this competition, Asalanka wasn’t even in the XI.
He then came in at No. 3 for Dinesh Chandimal, who failed to score runs in the first two games.
Since then, he hit 8, 80*, 35, 21, 12, and 68.
His innings on Thursday wasn’t even his best of the competition (that would be his 80* while chasing a target of 172, against Bangladesh).
However, it was still brilliant to watch.
He scored regular boundaries when the spinners were bowling.
He kept the scoreboard ticking with ones and twos when the boundaries were not coming easily.
The run-rate almost didn’t came below 8 runs per over when he was batting at the crease.
A vital innings from Nissanka
P. Nissanka also played a crucial innings for his side and scored a brilliant fifty.
His stand with Asalanka helped the Lankan side to put-up a good total on the board.
He is the second most successful batter for Sri Lanka in this T20 world cup after Asalanka.
He scored a lot of runs on the leg-side. He exuded calm that allowed Asalanka to play aggressively.
His 91 runs stand for the 2nd wicket with Asalanka defined the match and he ended up scoring more than 200 runs in this tournament
The finish from Sri Lanka
The second-wicket stand had set up Sri Lanka well, but it still required a top class finish.
The skipper Shanaka promoted himself up the order to show his big-hitting abilities.
He played a brilliant cameo with the bat scoring 25 runs off just 14 balls hitting a six and two fours.
Sri Lanka made 52 runs in the last four overs of the innings
West Indies batting collapses
C. Gayle, the “Universal Boss” and a match-winner in so many T20 internationals, failed to score big once again and failed for the fourth time in succession.
He scored just one single off his initial four balls and holed out to mid-off playing his first forceful shot of the match, to be out for one off five balls.
West Indies also lost Evin Lewis and Roston Chase inside the Powerplay that ended their possibilities to win the match.
Pooran was playing brilliantly and he made a small 30 runs partnership with Hetmyer but he was dismissed in the 12thover.
Hetmyer was playing on 9 off 15 balls when Pooran (46 off 34) was dismissed.
Hetmyer then began to accelerate but wickets were crumbling from the other end. He played aggressively to smash every bowler but it was too late.
Finally, West Indies ended up scoring 169 runs for the loss of 8 wickets but they lost by 20 runs against Sri Lanka
Scorecard
Sri Lanka – 189-3 in 20 overs
C. Asalanka 68 (41) Russell 2-33
Pathum Nissanka 51 (41) DJ Bravo 1-42
West Indies – 169-8 in 20 overs
Hetmyer 81 (54) W.Hasaranga 2-19
N.Pooran 46 (34) B.Fernando 2-24